Burke peddled influence for £30,000 from builders

FORMER minister Ray Burke was handed £30,000 in cash at his home in north Dublin in June 1989 and knew it was for his support and influence in rezoning lucrative development land, the Flood Tribunal has concluded.

Mr Burke, then Minister for Industry and Commerce, was given the money in a brown envelope for his support and political influence so that 700 acres of land owned by JMSE in north county Dublin would be rezoned for housing development.

Allegations about the 1989 meeting in Mr Burke's Swords home opened the floodgates that led to the payments-to-politicians tribunal. The allegations were made by James Gogarty, an executive at JMSE who later fell out with his employer, Joseph Murphy Senior.